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Assisted-Suicide Right Or Wrong Assisted-Suicide
Right or Wrong Deciding when to die and when to
live is an issue that has only recently begun to
confront patients all over the world. There is an
elderly man lying in a hospital bed, he just had
his fourth heart attack and is in a persistent
vegetative state. He is hooked up to a respirator
and has more tubes and IV's going in and out of
his body everywhere. These kinds of situations
exist in every hospital everyday. Should
physicians or doctors be allowed to assist
patients, like this one, in death? Even though,
physician-assisted suicide is illegal in the U.S.,
many doctors are helping suffering patients die.
Physicians should not provide treatments that have
a low chance of succeeding, such as respirators
for patients in a permanent vegetative state.

Rita
L. Maker, an attorney and executive director of
the International Anti-Euthanasia Task Force,
believes "the debate isn't about the tragic,
personal act of suicide, nor is it about attempted
suicide .. the current debate is about whether
public policy should be changed in a way that will
transform prescriptions from poison into medical
treatment"(45). Oregon is the only state that
allows assisted suicide. A doctor will prescribe
medication and the pharmacist will say "be sure to
take all of these pills at one time-with a light
snack or alcohol-to induce death"(45).

The states
insurance companies pay for the medication, which
are paid for by Medicaid called "comfort
care"(46). "Whether other states embrace
Oregon-style care will depend upon a willingness
to carefully examine what truly is at stake in
this debate .. about public policy"(46). It does
not matter about your point of view on
physician-assisted suicide; it's the layout and
plan that matters. For example "Walter Dellinger,
acting solicitor general, said 'the least costly
treatment for any illness is lethal medication' he
was right.

A prescription for a deadly overdose
runs about thirty five dollars .. the patient
won't consume any more health care dollars"(Marker
46). Whenever the economy was involved there was
always a major hill to climb. Not to long ago
patients were told to come in to get check ups
that were not necessary. All the hospitals and
clinics got paid back for everything they did to
the patient.

Finally, people became smarter and
started to say no the unnecessary treatments. Now
their income relates to the information they
provide, the less the better. Marker reports that
in recent years "a significant number of
health-maintenance organizations or HMO's are
'for-profit' enterprises where stockholder
benefit, not patient well-being, is the bottom
line"(47). There are programs that allow
physicians from telling the whole truth. The
doctor will say one thing when it really means
something different and usually it is for the
worse.

Not many people research into their medical
coverage until they are sick. Once that happens
you are not going to have a clue what your plan
covers. Marker stresses that "having a physician
friend who would talk over a planned
assisted-suicide before prescribing a lethal dose
is nothing more than a fantasy for the vast
majority of American"(48). Today, if its a
patients first visit it will be no longer than
twenty minutes and if the patient returns its
visit will be ten minutes. Another example is that
some medical programs want doctors to not treat
patients right a way and will usually cause a
conflict.

Marker points out "a survey published in
1998 in the Archives of Internal Medicine ..
found that doctors who are the most thrifty when
it comes to medical expenses would be six times
more likely than their counterparts to provide a
lethal prescription"(48). If a physician is
truthfully against assisted-suicide he or she will
offer every possible alternative to the patient.
To sum it all up, Wesley Smith, an attorney and
consumer advocate, expresses "the last people to
receive medical care will be the first to receive
assisted-suicide"(qtd. in Marker 49). If we
embrace assisted suicide as medical treatment, it
will return our embrace with a death grip that is
cold, cruel and anything but compassionate"(49).
On the other hand, Marcia Angell, executive editor
of the New England Journal of Medicine, it should
not be a crime for doctors to respect the wishes
of terminally ill patients who want assistance in
committing suicide. She start of her argument by
referring to a Supreme Court decision in which,"
they found dying patient [sic] have no right to
decide for themselves to cut short their suffering
by asking their doctors to prescribe an overdose
of sleeping pills or painkillers." The court said
it is the state legislatures fault for having laws
on physician-assisted suicide.

So the patient will
not have a choice if he or she wants to die unless
the state changes the laws. Angell claims that,"
the Supreme Court missed the point: Dying can be
slow and agonizing, and some people simply want to
get it over with." The only legal option patients
have is if they want their life support shut down.
Too bad most patients are not on life support so
they can not request it (33-34). Angell has no
clue why the legislature would make a patient
suffer when he or she does not want to suffer
anymore. She goes on pleading that this is the
same choice the Supreme Courts allows when people
abort their babies and when people get married.
"Dying patients suffering intractably should have
the option of taking and overdose, just as they
have the option of turning off life supports"
argues Angell. Even if the doctor prescribed pills
to the patient in most cases would not take them.
But, due to the fact, that the patient had the
option of taking the pills would make them happy.
When the patient thinks the time is right can take
the pills in peace (34).

Doctors then would have
the option, too. No one would be "pressured to ask
for assisted suicide .. [or] pressured to refuse
life supports"(34). The Supreme Courts verdict was
a whitewash against doctor-assisted suicide, 9-0.
The justices' opinions pretty much all said "the
notion that permitting doctor-assisted suicide
would be too great a departure from tradition, and
besides, god palliative care should relieve all
suffering"(34). Angell concludes "compassionate
doctors always have helped dying patients to end
their lives"(34).

Even though this is all done
under the table, by the doctor supplying the
patient with mass quantities of a certain
prescription. Only if the doctor is strong inside
and knows what the patients needs instead of wants
then the doctor should prescribe a drug. She
states that "polls consistently show about
two-thirds of the public favor permitting
doctor-assisted suicide"(35). Finally she sums it
all up by saying "sooner or later .. the practice
will become legal, because dying patients need
that choice and their doctors need to be able to
help them"(35).

Timothy E. Quill, M.D., practicing
physician, wrote this article in the New England
Journal of Medicine, which pertains to aiding
someone to death. Diane, Quills' patient for eight
years, was feeling weak and had a breakout on her
skin. Quill did some blood work. Many years of
Diane's life was lost as an alcoholic and a
depressed person, but she fought her way out of it
(111).

Although the odds were against her, Quill
let her be aware of the consequences she would
face when they get the bone marrow test back and
what they would do if the results were not so good
(111). The test came back and the oncologist
diagnosed Diane with 'acute myelomonocytic
leukemia.' The oncologist wanted to put a Hickman
catheter and start chemo as soon as possible.
Quill recalled that "[Diane] was enraged at [the
oncologists] presumption that she would want
treatment, and devastated by the finality of the
diagnosis. All ...